Wisconsin elk herd gets a boost to grow and expand range

CHEQUAMEGON NATIONAL FOREST, Wis. - There's a field here, nestled in a bowl of the landscape so that the rays of the morning sun bounce off a east-facing ridge and warm it pleasantly.

There are grasses for grazing and good scent- and sightlines in all directions to know if you're being watched.

If you're an elk, it's a great place to be. Perhaps too good.

It was here in this field in May 1995 that 25 elk from Michigan were released to seed the reintroduction of the towering cervids that once roamed much of the state. Their offspring now make up the healthy herd of just over 160 animals, and the cows return here to calve each spring.

For the wolves and bears that live here, this field is also quite a place - especially when the newborn elk arrive.

There's nothing unnatural or problematic on its face about this, but given that this herd of elk has nearly an entire national forest to roam, the herd should be growing faster, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources,

"Initially, the growth was fast, but it's slowed," said Ken Jonas, the DNR's area wildlife supervisor. "The local wolf pack and the bears are exploiting the newborn elk calves."

Jonas spoke on a recent afternoon as he and a dozen or so workers and volunteers stood around a forest road awaiting word from the field, where other workers were attempting to capture a few elk and relocate them some miles away.

The capture-and-transport is part of a plan the agency hopes will help the herd expand its range and grow faster.

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NEW CALVING GROUND

Once a female elk gives birth, she tends to return to the same area. This foiled a previous attempt to relocate several elk; the cows returned, and the bulls, having no other cows to court, eventually followed. The current plan is to capture young cows - 2-year-olds that haven't yet given birth - and a few handsome young bulls and relocate them to a fenced-in area of several acres.

They'll stay there, getting used to the place - and each other - until spring. If all goes well, they'll mate, and next spring the cows will return to give birth, thus establishing a second calving ground and perhaps a chance for fewer newborns to be killed by predators.

"We talked about establishing a second herd, but that became very tricky," Jonas explained. Imported elk need to be guaranteed free of diseases, especially chronic wasting disease, which would ravage the local white-tailed deer population. Certified breeding programs are just now being established. Jonas and others decided that creating secondary calving grounds using animals already on hand - a subherd of sorts - was the best option.

ELK RESURRECTION

Elk, the largest member of the deer family next to the moose, once roamed much of Wisconsin, as well as Minnesota and Michigan.

Frederich Maulson, 13, of Lac du Flambeau, Wis., holds steady the head of a sedated elk while Mark Schmidt, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, prepares to apply eye ointment to the animal in the Chequamegon National Forest near Clam Lake, Wis., Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

By the late 1800s, elk were killed off entirely by hunting and habitat loss in Michigan and Wisconsin. A 1918 reintroduction to Michigan held - despite heavy poaching - and the state now harbors between 800 and 900 animals, plenty for a healthy hunting season.

Three separate herds in northwestern Minnesota - Kittson, Grygla and Caribou-Vita, which straddles the Canadian border - total about 165 animals. Modest hunting is allowed on the Kittson and Grygla herds, with a goal of keeping them small - about 30 elk each.

Historically, farmers have not welcomed elk, because they can ravage a crop field, and that has been a factor in Minnesota's elk-hunting policy.

Wisconsin's first reintroduction in the 1930s failed; the last were shot in 1948.

An elk drools under sedation inside a holding pen in the Chequamegon National Forest on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. The sedative used to tranquilize elks so that a biologists can examine the animals leaves them drooling incessantly. Workers must prop up their heads to prevent elk from inhaling their drool.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)

Elk prefer oak savanna and open areas, and the sparsely populated national forest area near Clam Lake is close to the northern part of their range in the Badger State. But the 1995 reintroduction, via a public process and consultation with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, chose the area, in part, because of a lack of nearby agricultural land.

The primary goal of the program is to restore a native animal to its habitat. So far, wildlife officials haven't noticed any impacts on the deer population or forest ecology, although there's no question the wolves aren't complaining.

And human predators will have their chance.

When the population reaches 200 - likely in 2013 - hunting can commence, according to a state management plan. The first hunt would be small: 10 tags, with half of the harvest reserved for Indian tribal members.

But a hunt isn't needed to behold the huge animals.

On this day - a long day that stretched well past sundown - workers from the DNR and tribal groups were joined by a half-dozen student volunteers to tend to the two bulls and one cow that were tranquilized. The animals were examined by a veterinarian while vaccines were administered, blood drawn and radio collars checked.

"Oh, my God, this is amazing," Spooner High School student McKayla Olson whispered as she cradled the head of a sedated elk.

The 7-year-old cow was released, while the bulls, each 2, were transported to their new home.

Elk gallop from a holding pen in the Chequamegon National Forest near Clam Lake, Wis., on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. These elk were released while three others were tranquilized, examined and moved to a different area of the forest to encourage the wild herd to expand its territory. Pictured are, from left, Ken Jonas, area wildlife supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, DNR elk biologist Matt McKay, and private veterinarian Peter Litinski.
(Pioneer Press: Dave Orrick)